On Blu-ray/DVD: Masaaki Yuasa's bizarre, boisterous (and eventually pretty profound) anime, THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL

TrustMovies doesn't know quite what he expected when he sat down to view THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL, the 2017 Japanese anime just now hitting Blu-ray and DVD via the combined auspices of Shout! Factory and GKIDS.

According to the press release, the animated movie is "a free-wheeling comedy about one epic night in Kyoto, in which a group of teens go out on the town." While that description is, yes, more-of-less true, it barely begins to give you an idea of the utter strangeness and (I think) cultural foreignness of what you are about to encounter.

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa (shown at left), the movie -- based on a popular novel of the same name written by Tomihiko Morimi and illustrated by Yusuke Nakamura (the latter also served as the film's original character designer) -- is so full of oddball characters, both human and supernatural, and cultural references seeming perhaps rather bizarre to non-Japanese, that uninitiated viewers had best sit back and simply let the movie flow in, over and through them.

Eventually, during the final third of this 93 minute movie, things begins to coalesce and, if you're anything like me, you may find yourself surprisingly moved by the theme that finally makes itself most felt: that of how important are the connections -- all kinds of 'em -- between people.

In the film's most surprising scene, our heroine explains to an evil supernatural being how his misdeeds have actually connected people so that they -- and he -- are not alone. My god, this might mean there is hope even for someone like Donald Trump. (No, I am going way too far with that prognosis.)

That heroine, a college sophomore, known here as Otome (above), is being followed/stalked (but nicely) by a senior called Senpai (below), a probably decent enough fellow who is coming undone because he can't deal with or understand his mixed feelings of affection, sex, love, caring and all the rest.

The anime is peopled with lots of other characters, many of whom are as bizarre and interesting as all else in this very strange and energetic movie, the animation of which is super colorful and often quite inventive -- more and more so as the movie rolls along.

There's a "used-book ghost/being" (above), a love-smitten character who refuses to change his underpants, and a friendly pervert (below) with quite the collection of erotica (further below, with the sexual organs blocked by colorful florals).

Otome drinks like a fish yet never seems to actually get drunk. She can drink everyone else in the film under the table: This is one of her many "abilities" -- and one reason for parents to make sure they watch the film along with their under-age kids and then try to explain it all later.

The movie compares to little else I've seen (though maybe you're more anime-educated), and I suspect it will stick with me for some time. The combo Blu-ray/DVD package hits the street this coming Tuesday, January 29 -- for purchase and/or (I hope) rental. Enjoy!

DVDebut: PROJECT X deserves a look-see from any audience appreciating anarchy

Disappearing far too fast from the typically mainstream, sound-bitten, and afraid-to-encounter-something-different radar, the R-rated teen movie, PROJECT X, proves surprising fun. imbued as it is with a spirit of genuine anarchy that one seldom encounters in a Hollywood film. Granted, the very audience that could have made the movie a huge hit (and it would have been, had that audience been allowed in to view it), was kept away due to the film's "R" rating. Now, of course this a good thing, since, along the way in the film's fast-moving 88 minutes that provide the high-school party to end all high-school parties, a puppy dog is man-handled badly, partygoers ingest Extasy like it was candy, nudity (upper body, at least) is de rigeuer, and a house is consumed by fire. Don't try this at home (as the movie tells us, via warning label, right off the bat).

My point, however, is that while, yes, this is crazy, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves for enjoying it, these goings-on are extremely funny and grow only more so as the movie progresses and as the anarchy breaks free of that leash that a PG-13 rating would surely have provided. Director Nima Nourizadeh finds just the right tone for it all, while writers Michael Bacall and Matt Drake provide plenty of incident coupled to irony and wit so that we chuckle when we're not outright guffawing. Their best idea was to provide the character of the "cameraman" (whom we don't see but who proves an most intriguing guy, just the same) and the two pre-teen security guards. Hilarious. The three leads (plus our hero's girl) are all cast well and deliver the goods performance-wise -- with Thomas Mann (shown above, right -- but no relation to his namesake, I take it?) the standout as the nerdy but "purdy" (as those Hillbillies would say) hero.

OK: This is not a cinema classic, but as teenage "party" movies go, it's up there with the best (Can't Hardly Wait and only a few others). And for sheer anarchy, it way beats out something like The Hangover and its sequel. And while it does indeed go all mushy at movie's end, its good-guy hero, at least, can bear that mush -- unlike say, the character in The Hangover played by Bradley Cooper, who wants to leave a little baby in the same apartment with a loose Bengal Tiger, but whom we then have to get all gooey about at the finale. Oh, yes -- and the movie makes the best use of a little person (above, the wonderful Martin Klebba) than anything I've viewed since I last saw Peter Dinklage.

Project X is available now on Blu-ray and DVD, for sale or rental.